Story Highlights

NEW YORK — Supermodel Tyra Banks, now best known for her hosting gig on the CW Network's America's Next Top Model, has a new app, and it's based on a saying from the show. Smize Yourself! ($1.99) is all about teaching folks how to smile with their eyes. We met Banks recently at a photo studio in the Tribeca district here to find out more.

The app

"On America's Top Model, I've always told my girls to smile with their eyes. We call it `smizing.' Over the years, it's actually become part of pop culture. I would be walking down the street and girls would say, `Smize!' So many people asked me, `Tyra, am I doing it right?' I decided to do an app. It does it for you, but exaggerates it, and makes it more like a fun bar tool or at-lunch tool."

How it works

"I show three steps on how to Smize. The first is to find really good lighting. You need to think about something that's luscious and wonderful and just makes you feel good. Then pierce your eyes into the lens (of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch). Put your face in there, line it up," and get ready for the photo. As it clicks, "I'm egging you on, and telling you how fierce you are…" The photo from the app "accentuates your cheek bones and makes your eyes bigger. It gives your face a little more of a heart shape."

Apps she loves

She programs the iPhone weather app to see what the temperature is in New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Santa Fe, Marrakesh and Hong Kong. She plays the 99-cent game app based on the Wreck-It Ralph movie and views photos from all over the world on the free Fotopedia Heritage app. She calls the free Gangnam DanceBooth app her "new guilty pleasure." In the app, she takes a Smize photo of herself, and puts it atop of a dancer, a la the Gangnam style video that's all the rage on YouTube. "That is some crazy technology."

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Social media

Banks has more than 11 million social-media followers, with 2.8 million likes on Facebook, 7.5 million followers on Twitter and more than 1 million on the Instagram photo social network. "When I answer people, they're like `Dang, you're one of the only public figures who answers.' I do it all myself. The future is in photos for social media. More and more people are not reading, so I try to attach a photo to most Tweets."

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Then there are the photo apps

"I'm obsessed by Instagram," says Banks of the world's most popular photo app. "Sometimes I'll use four or five different photo apps on one photo just to get it where I want it to be." Favorites beyond Instagram include Snapseed, PhotoToaster Jr. and Pixlr-o-matic, which are all free. "I just go layer after layer."